Chicago Radio: Official..Mancow To Host Mornings On WLUP

Classic Rock 97.9 The Loop/WLUP Chicago has officially announced that Erich “Mancow” Muller has won its listener-generated morning show talent search and will join The Loop as host of a brand new entertainment-based morning show.

Mancow

Mancow announced on-air Friday that he would return to Chicago airwaves with the new show, Mancow Morning Show on 97.9 The Loop. Mancow’s new show will debut on Monday, March 30, and will air weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Mancow will reunite popular original cast members, Al Roker, Jr., Luv Cheeze and Cathy Vlahogiannis, providing the female prospective with Carrie Ann DeYoung. The show will also feature new talent, including Abe Kanan, famous for his show on SiriusXM.  

After a month of on-air auditions by multiple candidates vying to host mornings on The Loop, Mancow garnered an impressive listener response to The Loop’s Morning Show Web Survey during his five-day run. Mancow brought back the funny and served up the fast-paced entertaining show that put him on the map with Chicago radio listeners from 1994 to 2006. Fans of the original “Mancow Madhouse” came out of the woodwork to show their support, and thousands of positive comments flooded the station website. Comparing the voting traffic to the other candidates, it was no contest: Mancow won the “election” in a landslide.

Mancow’s radio career began at KMOK in Kansas City, on the morning show, Holy Moly & Maxx. He then ventured west to San Francisco, where he was on-air at KYLD-FM. After leaving California, Mancow came to WRCX in Chicago, where he created his now-famous radio show in 1994, and entertained Chicagoans from 1998 until 2006 on Rock 103.5, followed by 101 WKQX. The show was ultimately nationally syndicated across 50 U.S. markets. Mancow published his memoirs, “Dad, Dames, Demons, and a Dwarf”, which became a New York Times Bestseller.

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John Dickey, Executive Vice President, Content and Programming for Cumulus said: “Mancow is everything that's right about radio. The Loop couldn't have a better lead off hitter.  Da Loop is back with a vengeance.”

Mancow said: “This is my final act because I don't believe I'll ever top this! Chicago is a tough city for commuters and our ONLY goal with this show is to provide an escape and make our listeners laugh. There will be radio theatre. We will be three-dimensional and break out of the speaker. This show will pop like no other. We believe it will cut through the clutter and seize an audience that hasn't been served in years.”

He continued: “Cumulus and John Dickey brought me back into radio. He is a leader I can follow into this great radio battle to victory. This guy is committed to talent and committed to winning. It doesn't matter how much you love radio (and I do); if you don't have the right people around you, you are doomed. Finally, I have my dream team cast of characters and a company that actually wants to win. Lately in radio it seems like people are listless and don't know what to do. That is not the case with The Loop. We have a direction and we know where we're going. This is the most exciting time ever.”